David,
The area that you refer to in your note on BN Terns mainland nesting is
called Coral Beach and is one of the best locations to observe Brown
Boobies in the Bowen area. The beach is mainly used during the picking
season when a high level of itinerants arrive to work on the farms,
usually March to October.
It is a bit of a difficult area to get to either scrambling over rocks
or around them, best time is usually at low tide if approaching from the
Grays Bay area.
During the summer months there would not be too much activity in this
area so could prove to be suitable for breeding. I have observed good
numbers of BN Terns, Common and Crested Terns at Dalrymple Point approx
4 miles to the south with a number of juvenile BN and Crested Terns
present.
I will pay the area a visit tomorrow or on the weekend. Anyone visiting
the Bowen area, smack on the Queensland Coral Coast midway between
Mackay and Townsville grab a Tourist Guide for a bird list and my
contact details.
The Bowen Shire Council website is still under construction but will
eventually have details of birdlists etc soon.
Jon Wren
Bowen Queensland
>Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 16:01:27 +1000
>To:
>From: David James <>
>Subject: Black-naped Terns nesting on mainland
>
>When townsville was flooded in Jan. '98 I was stranded in Bowen for 2
>nights, and stayed in an overnight van at Horeshoe Bay. I trotted (read
>stumbled) out to the point to look for storm blown goodies (only 1
Great
>Frigate, 1 Least Frigate, 5-6 Bridled Terns). On the point (a small
area of
>boulders with a little sand beach about .25 acre) and foraging along
the
>shoreline there were about 20 Common Terns and about 60 Black-naped
Terns.
>Seventeen of the Black-napeds were juveniles, some in fresh juvenile
and
>others in advanced moult to first immature (1st basic). The juveniles
were
>still begging and being fed by the adults, and adults were singling out
>specific juveniles to feed. A few of the juveniles still had short
wings
>and tail and I would guesss were not capable of sustained flight. It
would
>seem that of colony of about 20-30 pairs bred on the point at Horseshoe
>Bay. Can anyone confirm this? I'm not aware of any other mainland
breeding
>records for this species. HANZAB does not specifically list any
mainland
>records. Any info?
>
>P.S The area was sign-posted as "Bowen's nudist beach", a great place
to
>lurk amongst the rocks with binoculars whilst taking notes. Does anyone
>know if Black-naped Terns prefer nudist beaches?
>David James
>PO BOX 5225
>Townsville Mail Centre 4810
>
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